Unstructured healthcare data promises to be the next “big thing” in healthcare. Finding meaning in patient care data will require looking beyond the 20-30% that is “structured” and stored within the EHR/EMR. A complete patient record is 80% unstructured data. From imaging to lab results, photos to findings—unstructured data management, sharing, workflow and analysis will power decisions and inform outcomes. Harnessing this data and turning it into actionable intelligence is a goal of a handful of leading HIT teams.
A new infographic, “Harnessing the Power of Unstructured Healthcare Data”, highlights the rapid growth of unstructured content and its impact on downstream analysis. Unstructured patient data has several new and growing origins:
1. Order- and encounter-based images: It is estimated that for every image created or produced upstream, there are ten “consumers” who will use that image to make a clinical diagnosis or decision downstream.1 Encounter-based workflows will result in a steep climb in patient imaging that is captured at the point of care. Imaging alone drives over $300B annually in downstream healthcare spend.2 Watch this space for more data and greater analysis.
2. Remote patient monitoring devices are a growing source of data. More than 4.9 million patients in 2017 each generated one thousand readings per second. And big data only gets bigger with patient self-monitoring. Think smart devices tracking lifestyle and daily activity. You’re probably wearing some type of monitoring device right now. Fifty-nine percent of HCPs allow patients to upload this data via portal or email.
3. Real-time monitoring data stands to push patient data volumes from 50 petabytes in 2017 to over 25,000 petabytes by 2020.
Business and clinical analytics is widely seen as a likely follow-on technology to EHRs and the next major investment in HIT infrastructure. HIT leaders that understand enterprise imaging, workflow and unstructured data know that analyzing incomplete patient data isn’t the answer. Solve the unstructured patient data workflow and management challenges, then bring deep analysis to the complete patient record.
What’s your strategy for dealing with healthcare’s unstructured big data challenge? Check out this infographic to learn more and see who the enterprise imaging, workflow and analysis leaders are.
1 Imaging Technology News, “RSNA Technology Report 2016: Enterprise Imaging”, with Louis Lannum, Agfa, 3/3/17, https://www.itnonline.com/videos/video-how-build-enterprise-imaging-system/5346623165001
2 Oracle, Healthcare Analytics and Big Data, http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/health-sciences/healthcare-analytics-info-2660933.pdf